Pay it Forward Giveaway: Liz Lovely Cookies

Liz Lovely cookies

While it’s good to cut down on animal products for the environment (think of how many people you could feed with 14 trillion gallons of water, instead of giving it the cows), it’s also hard to refuse a buttery chocolate chip cookie. Vegan dessert options aren’t good; most taste and look like Birkenstocks. Ironically, some are junkier than their regular counterparts. I’ll take butter over Crisco any day.

Liz Lovely is an exception. They only use fair trade, organic, and natural products: flour, sugar, Spectrum sustainable palm oil, baking soda, and your typical flavorings (chocolate, peanut butter, ginger). They make some of my favorite cookies, vegan or not. They practice what they preach too; they ship the cookies with biodegradable corn “peanuts.” These aren’t the corn forks that actually fill up landfills; they dissolve in water.

The nice folks at Liz Lovely sent me a three-pack sample, and the Chocolate Moose Dragons are my favorite. Unless you make flourless chocolate cookies, you can’t get much richer than this. The chocolate chunks are top notch. I didn’t care for the spiciness of the Ginger Snapdragons, and it was heavy on the baking powder taste. Although I fantasize about raw cookie dough, the Cowgirl Cookies showed me that too much of a good thing is just too much (but I bet the dough would go well with vanilla ice cream).

Just be careful with these cookies. Each bag comes with two cookies the size of your hand. While the package brags that you can share it with a friend, you won’t want to. But you should, because each cookie contains two servings. Liz Lovely’s mission is to do good, but I hereby declare their cookies evil because they ruined my dinner…and breakfast.

They might ruin your appetite too, if you win a sampler containing two each of the Chocolate Moose Dragons, Snicker Dudes, Goats a’ Grazin’, and Macaroonies Sock-It-To-Me! To enter, please promise to do a good deed and give me your best vegan dessert recipe (either write it in or provide a link) in the comments below. No recipes with trans fatty shortening please. The entry with most delicious sounding recipe will win. Contest ends Sun., July 13 at 5:00 PM EST.

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9 Comments

  1. Bixology said,

    Oh boy, oh boy! It’s so hard to find a good, decadent vegan cookie on the market! Here’s my favorite vegan treat, I make them for Christmas but they taste so fresh and springy they’re refreshing any time of year. I adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart. For my good deed, I promise to whip up a batch of these babies and send them to my dear friend Andrew, who just moved to a new town far away where he doesn’t know anyone and is feeling pretty down. He’s vegan, by the way.

    Vegan Green Tea Shortbread Cookies

    1 cup (2 sticks) Earth Balance brand vegan margarine (trans-fat free!)
    1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar, sifted (use a health-foody brand if you can find it, as some conventional sugars are refined using bone char)
    1 tsp pure vanilla extract
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    1/4 tsp salt
    2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp matcha green tea powder

    Heat oven to 275 degrees. Place two racks in the oven. Beat the butter on medium-low speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. 2.
    Beat in sugar and vanilla on medium. Sift together flour, salt, and green tea. Gradually beat into butter mixture on low. Transfer dough onto a piece of plastic. Pat into 8-inch disk. Wrap with plastic; chill 1 hour. (Dough can be made a day in advance.)
    On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick; cut into 1-to- 2 1/2-inch rounds or use cookie cutters for more interesting shapes. Re-roll until all dough is used. Transfer to two unlined baking sheets. Chill 15 minutes before baking. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until firm but not brown; let cool.
    Store in an airtight container (and mail to a friend!)

    July 9, 2008 at 1:40 pm

  2. Julie said,

    I am a vegan cupcake person all the way. After getting my hands on a copy of “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” no other cupcakes will do. This is one of the basic recipes from that book:

    Basic Chocolate Cupcakes
    1 cup soy milk
    1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
    3/4 cup granulated sugar
    1/3 cup canola oil
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
    1 cup all-purpose flour
    1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
    3/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    1/4 teaspoon salt

    INSTRUCTIONS
    Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
    Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
    Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and try not to eat all them.

    I have never been a frosting person. These cupcakes are great without frosting and most of friends prefer these without frosting, too because they’re so rich.

    My good deed would be to make a couple batches of these and spoil the people at work. Everyone loves a good cupcake 🙂

    July 10, 2008 at 10:55 am

  3. S for Kitchen Confit said,

    So while I’m not a vegan, I do occassionaly worry that i’m eating too many aniaml fats in the baked goods I love so much. When I saw the following recipe for brownie bites in Food and Wine a few years back – I decided to try them, and they are just awsome. In fact I think i’m due to try them again.

    Brownie Bites
    From Food and Wine

    Ingredients
    Vegetable oil spray
    ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free, all-purpose baking flour
    ½ cup sugar
    1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
    1/8 teaspoon baking soda
    ½ teaspoon salt
    ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
    ½ cup applesauce
    ¼ cup canola oil
    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    ½ cup dairy-free chocolate chips (I used Sunspire brand Organic Semi-Sweet chocolate chips, which are dairy free)

    Method
    Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray mini-muffin pan with vegetable oil spray. (KOD note: Use mini-muffin liners if you can find them; they give some shape to end result.)

    In a medium bowl, combine baking flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.

    In another bowl, whisk applesauce, oil and vanilla, then stir into dry ingredients.

    Stir in chocolate chips.

    Spoon batter into muffin tin, filling them three-quarters full. Bake for 15 minutes, or until set.

    Allow brownies to cool in pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

    July 10, 2008 at 12:15 pm

  4. Paulina said,

    I would love to win some free cookies, I have such a sweet tooth! Recently, I made a really delicious couscous cake made out of wholesome ingredients. Here’s the link: http://veggout.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-best-attempt-at-replicating-old.html

    I hope you like it!

    P.S. I promise to do a good deed today 🙂

    July 11, 2008 at 5:19 pm

  5. Jean-Paul said,

    Hi Jessica,

    I recently came across your blog and think it’s really nicely done. Just wanted to pass on that I like the angles you take on these desserts and the way you present them. 🙂
    y sis and I recently started a blog called Stories from Sugartown, which is more about dessert pop culture, and other bits and pieces such as stylish marketing of food/drink etc
    Anyway, take a look if you get a chance. I’d like to place a link to your blog on ours, hope that’s cool. Look forward to more posts. Cheers! Jean-Paul (Sydney, Australia)

    July 25, 2008 at 1:08 am

  6. Jessica "Su Good Sweets" said,

    Hi Jean-Paul,
    Sure, feel free to link to my blog. I like the pictures on your site. Love soft serve too.

    July 31, 2008 at 9:36 pm

  7. Cakespy said,

    No need to enter me (I’ve already tried the cookies!) but I just wanted to echo how delicious they are!

    August 4, 2008 at 1:08 pm

  8. niko said,

    These sound really good! I’ll have to add them to chocolate chip cookie feature. I’ll have to see how easy they are to come by at retail in the city. Apprently, they have them at Westerly, which is always good for a few healthy (or healthy seeming) treats. Thanks J!

    August 12, 2008 at 11:40 am

  9. Jessica "Su Good Sweets" said,

    Niko, Whole Foods has them (I think the Bowery location has the best selection). Oh, I forgot, I like the CC cookies from Life Thyme.

    August 12, 2008 at 10:30 pm

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